From Lucern I rode south towards the Alps towards Italy. I had initially planned to go through the Alps through the Dolomites, but the colder weather was scaring me out of it; there was a bunch of snow already on the passes near the Dolomites. At the Museum of Transport in Lucern, there was a huge display featuring the Gotthard Tunnel. I didn’t realize at that point I would be riding over it within a few days.
The ride down was some of the most scenic riding I’ve ever done. I totally get why people love Switzerland.
I’d been using Komoot for most of my routing up to this point. It had done a pretty decent job keeping me on routes that were bikable, but it had a bad habit of mistaking hiking trails for biking trails. I really don’t know why. I suppose someone mountain biked down this path before and put it on OpenStreetMaps, which Komoot uses as its underlying data source. Regardless, after I approached this downhill, I was pissed. I was on a loaded bike that definitely could not handle these steps. I had to walk down a long windy path with steps with a heavy bike. At the bottom I noticed I lost a water bottle and my rearview mirror along the way down 🙁 At least I didn’t have to ascend it..
That walk down burned a lot of time and it was already getting late in the day by the time I made it past Lake Lucern. There weren’t many obvious places to stop and before Gotthard pass and I still had the hardest part of the day ahead of me. So I started to book it to make sure I had enough daylight.
The climb over the pass was 38km long and ~2100m at the top. While it technically wasn’t the hardest climb I’d done thus far on this tour, the temperature made it the harder than all the others.
After a lot of switchbacks, the sun was starting to set and the temps were dropping. I was getting nervous, but I did manage to take a few quick photos along the way.
Close to the top there were a lot of bridges from the many centuries. Gotthard Pass was named after St. Gotthard, the patron saint of mountain passes.
Although you can’t tell from the photos, there was ice all over the place at this point and it was windy as hell. I was wet from all the climbing and was shivering uncontrollably. I don’t thin I could have pulled the brakes if I needed to on the descent. So I pulled over and put on pretty much every piece of clothing I had in my seat pack (I changed into a dry jersey too). I was feeling so fortunate to have everything I packed. By that point it was very dark. I don’t have photos because I didn’t have the patience or hand stability to take any. I was honestly very scared on the way down. I didn’t really know what was on the other side and I had to go down a fairly technical descent shivering in the pitch black. Thankfully there was hardly any car traffic.
By the time I got to the bottom the temperature was much more pleasant (probably in the 50s). I found this weird resort that had a bunch of high schoolers staying in it for some weird event. I rolled up on them out of nowhere at around 9pm. They were laughing at me. I started laughing too. Anyway I got a warm shower and descent breakfast the next day. I was so glad to be out of the Alps, but I know I’ll have to come back again during the warmer months to tackle all the hard climbs. I want to do them all some day.
I rolled out the next morning on to Como, which was an easy downhill ride. I got off to a late start though, so I was still chasing the sun by the end of the day. Man I hate doing that.
Once In Como, I checked in to the Ostello Bello hostel. Before I even checked in they offered me a “welcome beer” and told me to cook myself an Italian pasta meal using their free food and kitchen. I was blown away by the hospitality. This was the best hostel I’d every visited. I loved it. I put my bags in my room and made some pasta and took my welcome beer then.
I really loved staying at the hostel, so I decided to stay for 3 nights and explore Como. During that I found a bicycle apparel store that was operated by a former pro cyclist. He was very proud of Como and wanted me to know that it was a top cycling destination. I honestly never knew that before I met him. All I knew about Como was that it was a “romantic getaway destination” and that there’s a James Bond movie with some scenes taken `there (the ones with the wooden boats). Anyway, the he gave me a bike route that I had to do before I left.
So I bought a cycling cap from him as a token of my appreciation and took the notes he wrote down on the back of a post card.
The cap had the names of the passes on the route I was given, and I felt obligated to ride them if was going to “Ride like a Laghee”.
The next day I did just that, and it was one of the the best routes I’ve done, despite the very unfriendly drivers I encountered along the way.
Lake Como 
I miss my old red Vespa in SF 
Lake Como
Col Sormano 
Having a good time 🙂
On the route was a cycling museum! Cycling Museum Ghisallo. I was super excited about it, but the sun was setting and I didn’t have enough time to explore it, so all I got were a few superficial pics.
By the time I got back from the ride I felt so lucky. Cycling is the best.